By: Robert Brooks (1993)
In the workshops I offer teachers about fostering student self-esteem, I pose the following questions: “Do you believe you have a long-lasting impact on the lives of your students? Five, ten, twenty years from now, will your students remember you or experiences from your class? And if so, what do you hope they will remember?”
I ask these questions because I have spoken with many teachers who wonder if they truly have an impact on the children and adolescents in their classrooms. Doubts about their possible influence are often more pronounced when teachers talk about students who are burdened with learning difficulties — students who frequently experience school as the environment in which their deficits rather than their strengths are displayed.
Obviously, whether teachers believe they have an impact on the lives of their students is linked to their own self-esteem and their own sense of competence. When people believe that what they are doing is of little consequence, their motivation and energy will be minimal, and they cannot help but convey this to others. When those others are students, what will result is a school environment devoid of excitement and learning and filled with boredom and perhaps anger.
Descriptions of our own teachers and of ourselves
In attempting to examine teacher impact, I have asked teachers to think about one teacher whom they really liked when they were students. I then ask them to describe that teacher, which prompts such words as “demanding but supportive,” “caring,” “was interested in us,” “was excited about what she taught,” “had a good sense of humor.” Next, I ask the audience if they ever recall being overjoyed, when they were students, upon learning that one of their teachers was out sick. The question typically evokes some laughter. When asked for descriptions of this teacher, I have heard “intimidating,” “demeaning,” “boring,” “dull,” “never seemed interested in us.”
Next, I say, “imagine for a moment that I ask all of you to leave and bring in your students and ask them to describe you, what words would you hope they use? What words do you think they would use? Just as when you were a student, you had an image of your teachers, what is the image that your students have of you? What do you want that image to be?”
Indelible memories of school
In addition to this exercise, in my all-day workshops I have requested teachers to complete an anonymous questionnaire. The first question asks, “Please describe briefly one experience that you had with an educator when you were a student that reinforced your self-esteem. What grade were you in at the time?” The second question asks, “Please describe, briefly, one experience that you had with an educator, when you were a student, that lessened your self-esteem. What grade were you in at the time?”
Similar to the first exercise, I have been impressed with the strong emotions that these questions trigger. Teachers eagerly want to talk about their own childhood memories of school (the conversations at lunch during my all-day workshops are typically dominated by discussions of positive and negative memories of teachers), sharing with me how recent the memories seem, even though for some these memories are more than 50 years old. I became convinced that these memories of teachers persist, continuing to influence our lives years later — they are indeed indelible memories, indicative of the lifelong influence that a teacher can have.
This conviction is shared by others. Psychologist Julius Segal, in looking at what helps children overcome adversity, wrote that “one factor turns out to be the presence in their lives of a charismatic adult — a person from whom they gather strength. And in a surprising number of cases, that person turns out to be a teacher.” Similarly, a Massachusetts Department of Education report about at-risk students noted, “Possible the most critical element to success within school is a student developing a close and nurturing relationship with at least one caring adult. Students need to feel that there is someone within school whom they know, to whom they can turn, and who will act as an advocate for them.”
Teachers’ responses to my workshop exercises and to my questionnaire reinforced my belief about the significant impact teachers have on students. However, I have also been curious about what the nature of this impact might be, about what are the specific kinds of memories my questionnaire would call forth. My curiosity is not simply academic, for I think that if we discover certain themes emerging from these vivid memories, these same themes might be equally relevant for students in today’s world. I reason that teachers’ memories might serve as helpful guides in their attempts to provide positive experiences and avoid negative experiences for current students. What is done in the classroom today becomes the indelible memories of tomorrow.